[nagdu] moderator notes

[Julie J.]

Hey all!

Wow!   There are a ton of messages.  I haven't read through all of them 
yet.  I will.  In the meantime I wanted to interject a few things.

first and foremost, some of the messages have had a tone that is 
bordering on rude.  I am a very, very, strong advocate of letting people 
speak their mind.  However the writer *must* always be polite and keep 
the message          on thoughts, ideas, facts or plans.  It is 
absolutely not okay to flame an individual or even an organization.  Now 
before people go all crazy on me, please disagree to your hearts 
content.  Please tell us all the things you don't like about the NFB.  
I'm all ears, but where I draw the line is when constructive      
critisism turns into just plain whining or worse.

So explain why it is that you don't agree with the policy.  Tell us an 
alternative that could work just as well or better to solve the problem 
of barking and other problems with guide dogs left unattended in hotel 
rooms.  Tell us what you have done to ensure that your dog isn't barking 
even when you are not there to know for sure.

I also think it's important for people to know the history behind this 
rule.  It hasn't always been a policy of NAGDU and the NFB.  Many years 
ago at an NFB convention in a very nice hotel that had given us very 
nice room rates, guide dogs came that had fleas and were generally a 
huge problem.  This hotel would not host our conventions ever again 
after their horrible experience.  It turns out that hotels, just like 
all other sectors of commerce, talk amongst each other.  It got around 
that guide dogs at convention were a problem.  Other hotels were very 
reluctant if not outright opposed to hosting our conventions.  You will 
notice that NFB conventions get very, very good room rates.   A hotel 
cannot deny a guest with a guide dog access, but when you are talking 
about an entire convention you are talking about a very different 
thing.  The excellent room rates were in jeopardy.  So NAGDU and the NFB 
came up with the plan to self regulate guide dog problems in order that 
the hotel would continue to give us the low room rates.  This is why you 
are asked to not leave your dog unattended, to clean up accidents or to 
get a NFB affiliated person to assist instead of hotel      staff.  
These policies were not dreamt up to single out guide dog users or to 
make our lives more difficult.  They were drafted after problems 
occurred that were affecting the entire organization.  So if there had 
been no fleas in the first place or no dogs barking like crazy in hotel 
rooms, we would not have these policies and would not be having this 
discussion right now.

Thanks for making this list great!
Julie
NAGDU list moderator